1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processed medium manufacturing method, a data generation method, a computer-readable storage medium, and a structure manufacturing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As one of the structure manufacturing techniques, a technique of printing, in black ink or toner which is a material (electromagnetic wave-heat conversion material) for converting light (electromagnetic waves) into heat, a desired pattern on a print medium including an expansion layer that expands by heating and then irradiating the print medium uniformly with light to heat and expand the expansion layer is known. This technique prints, in black ink or toner, the pattern in the region where the expansion layer is to be expanded, utilizing the property that heat is generated to heat the expansion layer in the region printed in black ink or toner whereas no heat is generated and thus the expansion layer is not heated in the other region. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-171317 describes a three-dimensional printer using this technique.
Typically, there is a correlation between the formation density of the black ink or toner as the electromagnetic wave-heat conversion material on a surface of the print medium by area coverage modulation and the expansion height of the part where the electromagnetic wave-heat conversion material is formed in the expansion layer provided on one surface side of the print medium. This relationship, i.e. the relationship between the formation density of the electromagnetic wave-heat conversion material and the expansion height, is known from preliminary experiment, etc. for each type of print medium. In other words, if the expansion height to which the expansion layer is to be expanded is determined, the formation density of the electromagnetic wave-heat conversion material to realize the expansion height is uniquely determined. Hence, if the height of the structure to be manufactured by expanding the expansion layer of the print medium, i.e. the intended expansion height associated with each coordinate position on the surface of the print medium, is known, the density associated with each coordinate position on the surface of the print medium is uniquely determined based on the aforementioned known relationship. Based on the density distribution determined in this way, the electromagnetic wave-heat conversion material is printed on the surface of the print medium. Actually, however, the expansion height of the expansion layer of the print medium may be influenced by not only the formation density of the electromagnetic wave-heat conversion material at each coordinate position but also the formation density of the electromagnetic wave-heat conversion material in a region surrounding the coordinate position.
In view of such circumstances, the present invention has an object of providing a technique for manufacturing a structure of a desired shape by expanding an expansion layer of a print medium.